State to start Web site for employers to find workers

Employers attending a state labor department seminar at Columbia State Community College learned they could use a state funded Web site instead of employment agencies.

Tennessee intends to launch a Web site next fall to help employers find workers and people find jobs, according to a state labor department speaker at Columbia State Community College on Friday.

"You don't need any special software," Matt Milam, a statistical analyst with the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, told more than a dozen people attending a luncheon funded by Lewisburg's Economic Development Office.

Milam demonstrated with a projector showing Web site pages for employers to post job openings by using drop down menus to describe job duties as well as skills and education needed for openings at their work place.

"Once you post a job opening, you'll want to find applicants," Milan said, "but the employer must be verified by the Labor Department."

Employer numbers must be used, he said,

Those are the numbers assigned for income tax purposes.

The seminar at the community college campus on South Ellington Parkway was the first of its kind, Milan said. Another might be held in Columbia, although that's not been verified, he said.

A function on the state-funded Web site makes checking a pool of applicants convenient.

"The virtual recruiter system will notify you over a period of time," Milam said.

And, "Jobs remain posted until you take them off."

The meeting room used for the seminar conducted by the Workforce Employer Outreach Committee is just down the hall and around the corner from the Career Center, another division of the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development. It's where people may go to search for employment.

"We're going to be teaching at the Career Center how to use the system," Milam said.

Among the 14 people attending Friday was Mary Ann Peter who works in the accounting department at Moon Products, a pencil manufacturer in Lewisburg.

"This is almost like Monster.com," Peter said.

Moon Products' busiest season is in preparation for when students are going back to school, she said. In addition to salaried employees, Moon pays dozens of production workers, many of whom are temporary employees provided by Ledford Exchange.

Leanne Higdon, who also works in accounting at Moon Products, 1150 5th Ave. N., said the business' headquarters are in Canada.

"They will let us know when more employees will be hired," Higdon said. "It's not something we have a good handle on."

Built into the system explained by Milam is a preference for military veterans.

"Jobs posted here are available only to veterans for the first 24 hours," he said.

Friday's seminar was the latest in a series presented by the WEOC.

"We always come because we don't know about these things unless we come to learn," Peter said.